


Omnipotence

by jmtorres



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-09-08
Updated: 2002-09-08
Packaged: 2017-10-08 20:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jmtorres/pseuds/jmtorres
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Immobility, irresistibility, immortality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Omnipotence

"Could you create an immovable rock?"

"And then move it?" Q looked up from the borrowed tome of Shakespearian plays. "Jean-Luc, are you questioning my omnipotence?"

"Hardly," Picard rejoined. "I'm sure you have an answer; I'm just curious as to what it is."

"Yes, I can create an immovable rock," Q answered. "Then I can move the entire rest of the universe around it." He then dove back into _Much Ado About Nothing._

After a moment, Picard asked, "Suppose you made two immovable rocks. Clearly by the method you just described, you could make them appear to move in tandem, but could you make them appear to move independently?"

"Yes," Q said, without looking up this time. "I could destroy one and instantly recreate it elsewhere."

"Suppose they were indestructible, immovable rocks--"

"Then I could bend the fabric of space-time between them to make them seem farther apart or closer together."

Q sounded just a trifle impatient that time, so Picard waited a minute before asking, "These hypothetical, indestructible, immovable rocks. Could you destroy them?"

Q sighed and set the book down. "I could relocate them to a parallel universe, in effect destroying them in their universe of origin."

"Doesn't relocation violate the quality of immovability?" Picard queried.

"No," Q said. "I used the word 'relocate' more metaphorically than literally; your tongue doesn't have the necessary descriptive verbs for inter-universal action."

"Still," Picard replied. "Does it bother you at all that all of the solutions seem to involve some level of cheating?"

"Not really," Q answered, with a soft snort, as if reminding Picard to just whom he was speaking. But he continued, "The questions themselves cheat. An immovable, indestructible object is unnatural by the most basic definitions of the universe. Its nature is entropic; everything drifts, and everything degrades."

"And when the universe ceases to be?" Picard asked. "Will you?"

"Cease to be? Yes, probably," Q answered.

"Does that imply that you are not, in fact, immortal?" Picard said, with some surprise.

Q snorted again. "Death involves passing to various other planes of existence. All of those planes are still a part of the universe and will cease to be simultaneously. When the universe ceases to be, there will be nowhere for me to pass to--it will be an utter extinction, quite distinct from death."

Picard found himself fascinated by how casually Q described his fate. "Does that frighten you at all?"

Q took a moment too long to answer, and Picard wondered how sincere his indifference was when he did speak. "No. I expect I shall be very bored by the time the universe winds down, anyway."

**Author's Note:**

> This story is also archived on dreamwidth: http://jmtorres.dreamwidth.org/21992.html


End file.
